It is already known that breakfast keeps us healthy, but now researchers say that it also keeps us in good shape.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health revealed that teenagers who regularly eat breakfast tend to weigh less, exercise more, and eat a more healthy diet than those who usually skip the meal.

Their study involved 2,216 adolescents in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota whose lifestyle issues were followed for five years. At the time they entered the study they were just under 15 years.

The researchers were surprised to discover that the more regularly the teens ate breakfast, the lower their body mass index was. Body mass index, or BMI is a ratio of height and weight. Those who always skipped breakfast on average weighed about 5 pounds (2.3 kg) more than those who had their breakfast on daily basis.

“What we found in the study was that kids who eat breakfast frequently, and especially every day, they’re more healthy overall in terms of their lifestyle. They’re much more physically active and they have a better diet overall. So they have lower fat intake, lower cholesterol intake, higher fiber intake,” Mark Pereira of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, leader of the study said in a telephone interview, according to Reuters.

According to previous research, 12 to 34 percent of children and teens age 6 to 19 regularly skip breakfast.

The researchers also warned about rates of obesity, which have doubled in children and nearly tripled in adolescents over the past two decades, according to a 2007 report by the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office. They say it’s important to know the reason, because obesity has been linked to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes.

Pereira explained the findings by saying that breakfast eaters might control their appetite better throughout the day once they had their early meal. Breakfast might also prevent food binges at lunch or dinner, he added.

In conclusion, adolescents’ idea of losing weight by skipping breakfast is not as good as they think. Besides having health problems, they are also exposed to a higher risk of gaining weight.

The findings are being published in the March issue of the medical journal Pediatrics.